WARTHOGS

 Warthogs are also known as Pumba, warthogs have dull grey colors with naked skins that are thick. There are named warthogs, because of the wart-like bumps on their large elongated faces, the warts protect their eyes from being damaged by the hogs that protrude through the mouth of 30 inches of shoulders that are set high on the head to look out for predators until when it lows to look out for short grasses.

The common warthog is a wild individual of pig family, it’s found in grassland, woodland in sub-Saharan African, woodland. In the past, it was commonly treated as a subspecies. The warthog is a desert warthog of northern Kenya, eastern Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda in a number of game reserves.

Warthogs have patches on their faces that look like warts, but their thick growths of skin. These patches act as padding for when males fight during mating season.

The warthog is medium-sized species, with a head and body length ranging from 4.9feet and shoulders height from 35feet.Females, at 75kgs.The females are a bit smaller and larger than the males, with about 60 to 150kgs.

A warthog has two pair of tusks moving from the mouth and curved upwards. The lower pair is far shorter than the upper pair of the tusks. The roar sharp is rubbed against the upper pair every time the mouth is opened and closed.

The upper canine tooth grows up to 25.5cm long and wide cross section, being 5cm deep and 3cm wide. The curved tusks lies on a root and cannot lie on a table, it keeps curving backwards as it grows. The tusks are used for digging, other hogs against predators.

Warthogs forage during twilight and during day time; In case they live in the dangerous areas b they forage at night.

Warthogs run for more than 48km/h. their speed helps them to outrun the predators. They zoom right their dens and rear first, with their tusks sticking out the entrance security.

During the rare times a warthog decides to face the predators, instead of hiding in their dens.

The common warthogs are the only species that has adapted savanna and grazing habitats; its diet is omnivorous, composed of grasses, roots, fruits, barks, fungi, insects, eggs and berries.

The diet is seasonably variable, depending on availability of different food items. Warthogs graze on short grasses, while during dry season they graze on short and nutritious roots, their known to be powerful diggers, by using feet and snouts.

Feeding, warthogs as they feed they bend down their front feet backwards and move around on the wrists. They have pads that protect their wrists during movement from quite early in the development of fetus. The common warthogs reverse into burrows. With the heads facing the opening. Warthogs will mud to cope with the high temperatures and huddle together to cope with the low temperatures.

Males are very aggressively as they fight each other during mating season, the common warthogs flee by means of fast sprinting. Warthog’s main predators are the lions, leopards, humans, cheetahs, wild dogs, birds of prey and hyena’s .Incase a female warthog has piglets, she will defend them no matter what. Warthogs have been observed allowing velvet monkeys and mongooses to groom them to remove ticks.

Warthogs occupy in a home range, and a group of warthogs is called sounders, the sounder includes females and their young ones. Females stay in their groups as male tend to leave the groups, bit always stay in the range.

The males keep staying with the bachelor groups, but will start living alone when they become adults. Warthogs have facial glands, a tusk gland and sebaceous gland.

The warthogs are both sexes and begin to mark around at six to seven months old. Males tend to mark more than females.

 They mark sleeping, water holes and feeding areas. Warthogs use tusks marking for courtship.  Common warthogs are seasonal breeders, rutting begins in the late rainy or early dry season; they give birth at the start of the rainy season. The mating system is an overlap, the males have ranges with a number of females, and the behavior of the female is unpredictable .Boars sow to emerge outside their burrows.

The gestation period takes five to six months, they give birth usually 2-8piglets.The sow will stay in the hole for several weeks, nursing her piglets. They will nurse their own piglets in case of lose of their litter.

Piglets begin to graze at two to three weeks and their weaned by six months, the warthogs stay close to their mothers. Female warthogs are called sow and a male warthog is called a boar, females always groom each other and huddle together at night in order to keep warm. Adult males aren’t special and can decide to live alone.

Warthogs can be sighted in various national parks including Murchison falls National Park, queen Elizabeth National park, Semuliki National park. 

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